Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein countered mainstream media reporting that he had threatened to resign over the firing of FBI Director James Comey.
Rosenstein wrote a scathing memo to Attorney General Jeff Sessions Monday recommending Comey’s immediate dismissal, a recommendation quickly taken up by President Donald Trump. Rosenstein concluded his assessment saying, “The FBI is unlikely to regain public and congressional trust until it has a Director who understands the gravity of the mistakes and pledges never to repeat them. Having refused to admit his errors, the Director cannot be expected to implement the necessary corrective actions.”
Despite the memo, the Washington Post reported Wednesday, citing anonymous White House sources, that Rosenstein had threatened to resign over the fact he had been depicted by the administration as a “prime mover of the decision to fire Comey.”
Leaving a meeting at the Hart Senate Building Thursday, Rosenstein told reporters he had never threatened to resign. “No, I’m not quitting,” the DAG said.
Ian Prior, Principal Deputy Director of Public Affairs at DOJ, later confirmed to Breitbart News that Rosenstein never threatened to resign.
Rosenstein, who has served under presidents of both parties, was widely seen as a relatively apolitical consensus pick for DAG. His supposed threat of resignation was a central part of the Washington Post and other left-leaning news outlets’ narrative that the decision to fire Comey was an inappropriate measure taken by the president in a fit of anger.
All public statements continue to posit that the decision to fire Comey was unanimously supported by the President, Attorney General, and Deputy Attorney General.
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